Cate Blanchett To Make Her Directorial Debut With Psychological Thriller The Dinner

Cate Blanchett has had the chance to work with some of the best filmmakers out there over the course of her career, from Martin Scorsese to David Fincher to Peter Jackson to Wes Anderson, and now she's apparently ready to put all of those learning experiences into her next venture. After spending 20 years in front of the camera, the actress is now set to make her feature directorial debut, and according to Deadline she'll do so adapting author Herman Koch's novel The Dinner.

First translated into English and published earlier this year, the described "psychological thriller" centers on two couples that are having dinner at a fancy restaurant. As the meal goes on the audience begins to learn that both couples have teenage sons who are currently under investigation for a horrific act that they committed. When the subject is finally broached in conversation all civility at the table disintegrates. Oren Moverman, who earned a screenwriting Oscar nomination for his film The Messenger and earned strong reviews for the corrupt cop thriller Rampart, is handling the adaptation. At this time it's unclear if Blanchett is also planning to star in the picture.

As a big fan of stories where characters are stuck in one location and forced to interact with each other, a la Whose Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Twelve Angry Men, I must say that this project sounds fascinating and could be an interesting challenge for a first time filmmaker. The plot actually reminds me a lot of Roman Polanski's 2011 movie Carnage (based on the play by Yasmina Reza), in that both revolve around two pairs of parents who are brought together because of an incident involving their sons. From what I've read about The Dinner, Koch's story goes a bit darker than Carnage does, but the similarities do seem to be present.

As Deadline notes, Blanchett is once again expected to be an Oscar contender this year, as her performance in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine earned rave reviews, but she's far from done in 2013. The actress also has the female lead role in George Clooney's The Monuments Men, which will be out in December, and is expected to be seen reprising her role as Galadriel in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. While it doesn't have a U.S. release date yet, we also should soon see the release of the Australian anthology film The Turning, which features a segment that Blanchett directed. Hopefully the movie will come out soon so we can get a sense of what to expect from the actress as a director. For now get a glimpse of her work with the trailer below.